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HOPE

A man can live in the desert for probably 12-15 hours without water but there is something that is more important to his survival. If a man does not have hope of reaching water he will give up and die. Thus hope is even more necessary to man than water to survive.

The opposite of hope is despair. When a person reaches the depths of despair he or she will commit suicide. It is not accident that the rise in despair in society has led to a higher suicide rate especially among teenagers. In the city of Toronto more young people 16-25 die by suicide than by any other cause. When they are unable to cope with life's pressures they escape by suicide. In Japan the pressures of bullying and failure to enter the right University are often the cause of teenage suicide. Faith is the foundation for hope. Faith without hope would, by itself be empty and futile. (I Cor, 15:14,17)

Today we want to look at hope and how to maintain it. When we lose hope we are depressed and we have a lot of other troubles so we are to maintain our hope and it should be grounded in the Lord.

In the Bible there are a number of different Hebrew words translated by our word hope. When we study them we gain a clearer uinderstanding of Hope from the Bible. Isaiah 40:31 tells us that we are to hope in the Lord. The meaning of this Hope was to twist or to stretch something. This gives us the idea that even a weak thread twisted together with a rope becomes strong and can endure under tension. When we are woven into God's rope; when our direction and hope is in God's promises of strength, deliverance and ultimate eternal life we have the strength we need to endure under pressure and difficulty. This is the hope that gives strength.

The next hope gives endurance. The Israelites did not obey God's commands so God removed his protection from them so that they would realize their disobedience. God allowed the Babylonians to come and destroy the capital. Those that survived were taken to Babylon as slaves. Jeremiah survived that holocost and wrote about this enduring hope in In Lamentations 7:19-26.

Hope is what kept thousands of people alive in the concentration camps of the great wars. Hope that they would soon be released. Hope that things would improve. Hope that their relatives were looking for them and hope to be reunited after they would get out. This fragile element of life is what keeps human beings going under torture and persecution. As soon as they give up hope they soon died.

Another hope inspires trust or confinence in God. When the powereful King of Assyria attacked Jerusalem he tried to bring fear to the people by mocking their trust in God. When people become Christians they often are ridiculed and mocked but when we put our confidence in God he gives us hope. The king of Judah didn't give up his hope in 6 d but ra her prayed and God sent a death angel to the battle camp of the Assyrians and in one night 185,000 men died in their sleep. God protected the Israelites because their hope was in God. Yahweh was the object, embodiment and guarantor of his people's hope. Wherever, humanly speaking, the future seemed a dead end, prophets of judgement like Hosea Jeremiah and Ezekiel opened up the divine perspective of a new beginning.

Another kind of hope in the Old Testament was the hope that looks forward to the promises of God. David said in Ps 119:166 "I hope for Thy salvation, 0 Lord, and do Thy commandments.' Hope is also tied to action. We need to follow God's commands to receive his salvation.

The word hope then has the element of giving strength, allowing us to endure under great stress, Hope gives us confidence in God and allows us to look forward to the future salvation God gives to all his children.

Biblical hope is patient, disciplined, confident waiting for and expectation of the Lord as our Saviour. To hope is to be set in motion by the goal ahead, awaiting in this movement towards the goal. Hope becomes the motive for persona purity (I Jn. 3:3) and spurs us on to strive for holiness Heb 12:14 ) without which no man can see God. Hope requires us to hold fast our confession of it without wavering (Heb 10:23) and to be ready to give and answer to anyone who asks us to give an account of our hope (I Pet. 3:15) Content of hope is in Christ or God not in self or materialism.(Ps 42:5,11) The basis of hope is on the gracious work of God in Jesus Christ not on our good works. (I Pet. 1:3) The nature of hope - It is called a good hope which binds those who have been called .

I Cor 13:7 says love "hopes all things" while Col 1:4,5 tells of the love which you have for all the saints because of the hope...

As Christians there are a number of things which we hope for. We look forward to spending eternity with God but before that happens our present hope is for the deliverance from Satan, sin and death. We look forward to to return of Christ and the rewards for faithful service here on earth. 'In eternity we are promised that there will be no pain, suffering and tears. There will be joy and happiness in heaven which has no comparison with that which we experience here on earth.

In the New Testament we read about Peter who denied he was a follower of Jesus. When he was denying his Master what did fail? His hope, and when hope is gone courage fails and man becomes a coward." That is why when a person commits suicide a person's hope is gone and they do the most cowardly action a person could do - take their own life to escape from the challenge and responsibility of working out a possible solution. Suicide is not honorable it is cowardlyand indicates that people have lost hope. Hope gives courage and strength. Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail him. Today Jesus is interceding for us as well, perhaps he is praying the same for us. A well-known American author, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, has said that it is the glimpse of hope that maintains terminally ill people through their suffering. It is the feeling that all this suffering must have some meaning, will pay off eventually if they can only endure it for a little while. If a patient stops expressing hope, it is usually a sign of imminent death. Hope acts like an anchor to stabilize our lives in the present and give us meaning, direction, and optimism. When we reach the point of death will there be a hope for the future life or just despair.

Thus it is very important to have hope. If we do not have hope we will get discouraged, despondent, depressed and then despair. Depression is a very common problem in today's high pressure society. There are a number of causes of depression.

The gap between the ideal self and the 'actual self is the cause for many people's depression.

Without the power of God a non-christian has to flounder along in his own strength. As a Christian we could give up hope when we read about God's high standards but these are only achievable in the power of the 'Spirit .

Low self-esteem is the second major cause of depression. This lack of personal worth and confidence brings discouragement, resentment and bitterness. Often this low self-image comes from parents, teachers, or a boss who tell the person that they are no good, that they cant do anything right, or that they will withdraw their support or love if the person isn't good enough. The Bible teaches us that we all have a tremendous value in God's sight and when we become Christians we are given new power from God to do God's work here on earth.

The feeling of helplessness or powerlessness is another cause of depression. Although someone tries hard tolease parents, family or friends it never seems to bejoodsenoui% The, get the feeling that Jere is no way out and that it will only get worse. God has told us tM no matter what we can do as Christians it is not good enough to earn eternal salvation. If this is true then Christians should be the most depressed people but the Bible does not finish there. The Bible tells us that our only hope is in God. When we put our trust there we have a new hope and joy When C. S. Lewis, a famous British author, lost his wife, he became agr , resentful and depressed. He says he tried to kick in the doors of heaven with his anger but when he realized what he was doing he knocked gently through prayer to God and the door opened and God's joy flooded his heart.

It is not easy to be a Christian but God has given to us hope and power to overcome depression and difficulty. Roomans 15:13 tells us that God is the source of hope and provided the power for life's difficulties. Read. Won't you trust God for everything today?
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Feb 1 West Hiroshima